Fasāḥah evaluates soundness and clarity of wording and construction; balāghah also demands fitness to the communicative circumstances. When describing a speaker, both terms involve malakah, a developed and dependable faculty of expression.
The distinctions are:
1. An eloquent word is free of its characteristic word-level defects.
2. An eloquent utterance is also free of defects caused by combination.
3. An eloquent speaker can produce such utterances.
4. A balīgh utterance is faṣīḥ and conforms to context.
5. A balīgh speaker can repeatedly produce contextually suitable utterances across purposes.
The next lesson begins ʿilm al-maʿānī, examining circumstances and the principles governing suitable verbal form in a more systematic way.